Sunshine Coast Public University HospitalConstruction update – June 2015

Celebrating, assembling, linking and revealing...

The life of a construction site is fast paced. April and May at the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital site saw more than 500 new construction workers inducted through the site which brought the total to around 5,000 people inducted into the project, a major milestone celebration to mark the topping out of the main hospital building and the exterior of the main hospital building's eastern 'Lakeside' building beginning to be revealed as scaffold is removed.

This month, the link bridges where both staff and public will walk from the main carpark (P1) to access the main hospital building will be assembled and progressively installed. These aerial walkways will connect to Level 1 for general public and Level 3 for hospital staff; and the link bridge from the facilities management centre to the main hospital building will also house medical gases and chilled water pipes.

The hospital will continue its transition to the next phase of the project, with a focus on the internal fit out. The number of daily onsite construction workers will grow from the current 1,400 to project peak of 1,800 workers across trades including services and finishes, as the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital powers through into the second half of 2015.

Construction celebrations

The Honourable Cameron Dick with a commemorative concrete float to mark the topping out of the Main Hospital Building.

A major milestone was reached in early May as the main hospital building reached structure completion after two years and 74,780 cubic metres of concrete being poured across the building! The main hospital building, which forms the centre of the new hospital, has a total floor area of 164,000 square metres with each floor plate about 24,000 square metres.

The main hospital building is split over six functional levels, plus roof top plant rooms and helipad. The building will house emergency, medical, cancer, renal, intensive care, obstetric, paediatric and clinical support services, as well as the inpatient bedrooms.

All of the concrete poured on the main hospital building was from local plants and is reinforced with approximately 7,460 tonnes of steel.

Over 85 per cent of the workers are locals and worked within trades such as formworking, steel fixing, concreting, scaffolding, concrete pumping, plumbing, electrical, hydraulics and waterproofing, as well as tower-crane operation.

Once complete the building will include 6,300 doors, about 6,000 rooms and 15 stairwells.

Interesting site fact: Yellow shade-cloth around the main hospital building denotes permanent and temporary stairwells. There are 15 main circulation and egress stairwells in the main hospital building.

Linking the bridges

Above Image: Link bridges will be transported to site and attached to the above columns

The first of the link bridges will be installed this month between the facilities management centre and the main hospital building.

The link bridge will be transported to the construction site in two sections by police escort heading south down Kawana Way to the site using semi-trailers, and lifted into position by a 350 tonne crane.

This is targeted to take place (weather permitting) after-hours from Midnight, toward the end of the month. Each section will take about one hour to deliver. Kawana Way will remain open at all times to traffic, however southbound traffic may experience slight delays between midnight and 2am. More information will be circulated on the www.lendlease.com.scuh landing page for local residents, once the date of delivery has been finalised.

The first link bridge to be assembled is about 37 metres in length and weighs 115 tonnes and will also house chilled water pipes and medical gases for the main hospital building. The chilled water pipes are used for the air-conditioning and cooling systems in the main hospital building, mental health unit and hub (auditorium) buildings; and their combined weight is approximately 30 tonnes.

Interesting site fact:The link bridges are so big that they could not be delivered to site fully assembled; but instead are being assembled close to site for easy transportation.

The public hospital revealed in images

Solid progress is being made right across the public hospital site. The main high voltage switchboard located in the facilities management centre (FMC) has been energised and permanent power to site is now available. The FMC is now also weather tight, and scaffolding is being removed to reveal the multi-coloured façade and other exterior treatments.

Above Images: The red boxes on the FMC are the generators of the Facilities Management Centre.

The brightly coloured boxes you may see on the roof are the generators of the Facilities Management Centre and are ready to be commissioned.

Above Images: From Left to Right: The Thermal Energy Storage Tanks (TES Tanks) are nearly complete and can be seen from Kawana Way. View from inside one of the TES Tanks which will hold up to 4.6 million litres of chilled water.

The two large tanks on the northern side of the building are the two thermal energy storage tanks and are nearly complete. Standing almost 23m tall, they will hold 4.6 million litres of chilled water, which will be used for the public hospital's air conditioning cooling requirements during peak demand to reduce overall energy usage on the site.

The Facilities Management Centre houses the kitchen facilities, major centralised engineering plant, waste services and loading docks for the public hospital. The installation of the kitchen cool rooms and range hoods has been completed; and construction of the loading docks will be finalised toward the end of June.

The Facilities Management Centre also houses one of the two Telecommunications entrance rooms for the site, which is located on Level 2 of the FMC and is also nearing completion. The second telecommunications entrance room is located in the Hub (auditorium) building.

Internal walls are being painted and vinyl is being laid ready for the Facilities Management Centre completion date toward the end of 2015.

Above Image: The façade of the eastern Main Hospital Building ('Lakeside') has progressed with glass panelling now installed.

The façade for the Lakeside building is nearing completion with the glass panelling installed across the exterior of the intensive care unit on Level 2 visible from Eccles Boulevard.

When walking south from the hospital's main entry along Hospital Street, the 4,000 square metres of dedicated commercial space to the right is now visible. To the left is the Central Courtyard, a 150 metre by 45 metre open courtyard that will be fully landscaped and includes a children's playground. This area is now ready for the full height glazing to be installed.

Above Image: Lendlease MHB construction team standing next to a prefabricated riser

Another milestone achieved across the Ground floor has been the installation of the high level services, medical gas pipes and electrical cables that form the core of the services distribution for the building; along with commencement of the mechanical risers that are prefabricated off-site and then dropped into place. These risers house ductwork that feed into all floors from the major plantrooms.

Above Image: Panoramic view of The Hub auditorium

At the northern end of the site, Level 1 and 2 floor slabs for The Hub, that house the majority of the Skills, Academic and Research Centre (SARC) amenities, are now complete. The distinctive circular walls of the 370 seat auditorium are also complete and easily viewed from Doherty Street.

The Hub has been designed in contrast to the main hospital building so that there is a clear separation between the teaching and research facilities and the public health facilities.

The main multi-deck carpark (P1) structure has progressed up to Level 6 of the 7 levels, with façade installation containing over 700 tonnes of steelwork. The carpark has over 2,700 carpark spaces; with levels Ground Floor (GF), Mezzanine and Level 1 available for the general public and Levels 2 through to 7 available for staff. Internal express ramps from Level 2 to Level 4 will be installed to access the higher floors. Staff will be able to go directly from GF to Level 4 without the need to circulate on the floors by using both express ramps.

Interesting site fact:Each (of the 9-level) floor plates for the main public hospital carpark (P1) is approximately 10,000m2, which is equivalent to around 22 standard blocks of land.

External to the site, permanent footpaths, road line marking and traffic signals are being installed, including two new roads into the public hospital.

Frazer Lane leads to the southern entrance of the hospital and short term parking for renal and cancer care patients.

Dunlop Lane is adjacent to the mental health unit, which is a single storey structure that will offer both inpatient and outpatient services. The lift core that will service between the Ground and Lower Ground level service corridor has been completed and the ground floor slab has also now commenced.

Contact us

For general construction enquiries (non-employment related) or to register for the above Construction Updates, contact Lendlease on:

About the project

The $1.8 billion Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital project is a State Government initiative to address the growing health service needs of the Sunshine Coast community. The hospital will open with approximately 450 beds in 2016 with the remaining capacity expected to be commissioned by 2020/21 which will see all 738 beds utilised.

The new tertiary facility is being delivered through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract with Exemplar Health, a consortium comprising Lendlease, Siemens and Capella Capital, with partners Spotless Facilities Services. This consortium will design, build and finance the public hospital as well as maintain it for 25 years.